Taking Note
MF
Hollywoodism WHEN THE SOVIET UNION REFRAINED from quashing the eruption of Eastern Europe, and even encouraged its former client states to go their own way, Latin America's hopes for a Glasnost...
...military control over strategic waterways and commercial control over the region's agricultural wealth...
...Today, in contrast, the objective is not to allay a threat to imperial control, but to create one...
...politicians and businessmen...
...Certainly there were strategic considerations: The Pentagon may be willing to hand the Canal over to the Panamanian government in the year 2000, as stipulated in the Torrijos-Carter treaties, but only to one which exhibits unequivocal fealty...
...Noriega offer a satisfactory explanation of U.S...
...policy in this Hemisphere...
...military control over strategic waterways and commercial control over the region's agricultural wealth...
...three of them had worked on past issues of the Report...
...In the ghoulish underworld of the CIA personnel department, Noriega's crimes could only be termed minor insubordination...
...They were set up and carried out to cow the public, to domesticate the press, to keep the liberals in line, and, especially, to justify the military spending on which the most vested interests of U.S...
...But both of these objectives could have been accomplished by simpler means...
...Their humility, their commitment to justice, and their unflagging faith that understanding the world is essential to changing it, remain an inspiration to us all...
...meddling-the perceived threat of a rival empire...
...only now the enemy at home is not the Left, but the thousands of unemployed youth for whom the system offers no future...
...politicians and businessmen...
...They were set up and carried out to cow the public, to domesticate the press, to keep the liberals in line, and, especially, to justify the military spending on which the most vested interests of U.S...
...economy afloat...
...Anti-drug campaigns hold the same potential...
...only now the enemy at home is not the Left, but the thousands of unemployed youth for whom the system offers no future...
...In the ghoulish underworld of the CIA personnel department, Noriega's crimes could only be termed minor insubordination...
...The Christmas invasion of Panama put an end to such dreaming...
...They were all friends of NACLA...
...MF* VOLUME XXIII, NO...
...His greatest affront to his bosses-balking at providing further aid to the contras in 1986-probably deserved reprimand, but it hardly called for a campaign of demonization culminating in the prime-time circus of invading troops and the public show trial that is sure to follow...
...the Drug War) is a political convenience, a show performed on television and in the halls of Congress...
...Left critiques at the time focused on the U.S...
...politics depend...
...In the Cold War, anticommunism worked so well because it identified the external enemy of U.S...
...Left critiques at the time focused on the U.S...
...policy in this Hemisphere...
...Like most of the dozens of other U.S...
...The official ideology that sees Russians behind every Latin American nationalist lies in shambles...
...Why couldn't it happen here...
...Noriega offer a satisfactory explanation of U.S...
...Today, in contrast, the objective is not to allay a threat to imperial control, but to create one...
...three of them had worked on past issues of the Report...
...Nor does the fiendish career of Gen...
...The reality of thousands of invading troops, the relentless bombing of a civilian neighborhood (poor and black, not incidentally), the theatrical encirclement of foreign embassies, sent a clear message: The Cold War may be over, but the Empire predates anticommunism...
...thug- gery will remain the guiding light of U.S...
...motives...
...The reality of thousands of invading troops, the relentless bombing of a civilian neighborhood (poor and black, not incidentally), the theatrical encirclement of foreign embassies, sent a clear message: The Cold War may be over, but the Empire predates anticommunism...
...Why couldn't it happen here...
...Wars, he argued, were no longer fought to conquer resources or defeat rivals, rather to justify the high military budgets that keep the U.S...
...economy afloat...
...thuggery will remain the guiding light of U.S...
...But both of these objectives could have been accomplished by simpler means...
...In fact, the invasion may well have been the opening shot of the post-Cold War war, in which "drug lords" replace communists as the devil of the 1990s...
...The post-Cold War war (a.k.a...
...The post-Cold War war (a.k.a...
...They were all friends of NACLA...
...Bosph, who was ousted in a U.S.-sponsored coup in 1963, proposed that such imperialism was a phenomenon of the past, superceded by what he called "Pentagonism...
...Any excuse to invade is good enough, he claimed, if it can be played right to the U.S public...
...The official ideology that sees Russians behind every Latin American nationalist lies in shambles...
...5 (FEBRUARY 1990) 3 TA44N4i Hollywoodism WHEN THE SOVIET UNION REFRAINED from quashing the eruption of Eastern Europe, and even encouraged its former client states to go their own way, Latin America's hopes for a Glasnost Americana suddenly seemed well founded...
...Like most of the dozens of other U.S...
...Nor does the fiendish career of Gen...
...In fact, the invasion may well have been the opening shot of the post-Cold War war, in which "drug lords" replace communists as the devil of the 1990s...
...T HE MURDER OF SIX JESUIT PRIESTS IN EL Salvador in November hit close to home...
...O N THE GROUND, THE "ACTION" IN Panama has been similar to the invasion and occupation of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Panama itself at the beginning of this century: a massive show of brute force, followed by the disarming and disbanding of the local military, the establishment of new security forces armed and trained by the United States, and the creation of a new state structure run by pro-U.S...
...invasion and occupation of his country that challenged Latin America's understanding of United States policy...
...I N 1967, THE EX-PRESIDENT OF THE DOMINIcan Republic, Juan Bosch, wrote a book on the 1965 U.S...
...Pentagonism" is an outdated term, but Bosch was right...
...Anti-drug campaigns hold the same potential...
...T HE MURDER OF SIX JESUIT PRIESTS IN EL Salvador in November hit close to home...
...ruling circles (the socialist camp) with their internal enemies (leftists in the unions, New Dealers among the Democrats...
...There was also the influence of domestic politics: Bush needed to cast off his wimpish image by playing out a macho fantasy on a government that had become less than compliant...
...invasions of Central America and the Caribbean since the 1850s (17 of them in Panama), the objective was to muscle out the British and establish the United States' sovereign claim to the Caribbean Basin-creating client states to ensure U.S...
...After Reagan perhaps we would do better to call it "Hollywoodism...
...need to preserve access to Dominican sugar to replace that lost to the Cuban Revolution...
...N 1967, THE EX-PRESIDENT OF THE DOMINIcan Republic, Juan Bosch, wrote a book on the 1965 U.S...
...invasion and occupation of his country that challenged Latin America's understanding of United States policy...
...In the Cold War, anticommunism worked so well because it identified the external enemy of U.S...
...politics depend...
...There was also the influence of domestic politics: Bush needed to cast off his wimpish image by playing out a macho fantasy on a government that had become less than compliant...
...In this brave new world, Hemispheric affairs and municipal politics come off as a grade-B morality play in which, just like in Hollywood, black and Latin people play devils and extras and end up dead...
...The invasion of Panama, like that of Grenada in 1983 and the bombing of Libya in 1986-and even the wars against Nicaragua and El Salvador responded not to serious economic or strategic objectives, nor were they even a product of ideological stridence...
...ruling circles (the socialist camp) with their internal enemies (leftists in the unions, New Dealers among the Democrats...
...the Drug War) is a political convenience, a show performed on television and in the halls of Congress...
...Gone is the primary justification for U.S...
...Gone is the primary justification for U.S...
...need to preserve access to Dominican sugar to replace that lost to the Cuban Revolution...
...Their humility, their commitment to justice, and their unflagging faith that understanding the world is essential to changing it, remain an inspiration to us all...
...After Reagan perhaps we would do better to call it "Hollywoodism...
...The invasion of Panama, like that of Grenada in 1983 and the bombing of Libya in 1986-and even the wars against Nicaragua and El Salvador-responded not to serious economic or strategic objectives, nor were they even a product of ideological stridence...
...But like its predecessor, it is waged in earnest on the periphery of world power-in Latin America and the ghettos of our cities...
...Pentagonism" is an outdated term, but Bosch was right...
...motives...
...Any excuse to invade is good enough, he claimed, if it can be played right to the U.S public...
...His greatest affront to his bosses balking at providing further aid to the contras in 1 986 probably deserved reprimand, but it hardly called for a campaign of demonization culminating in the prime-time circus of invading troops and the public show trial that is sure to follow...
...Hollywoodism WHEN THE SOVIET UNION REFRAINED from quashing the eruption of Eastern Europe, and even encouraged its former client states to go their own way, Latin America's hopes for a Glasnost Americana suddenly seemed well founded...
...The Christmas invasion of Panama put an end to such dreaming...
...But like its predecessor, it is waged in earnest on the periphery of world power in Latin America and the ghettos of our cities...
...O N THE GROUND, THE "ACTION" IN Panama has been similar to the invasion and occupation of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Panama itself at the beginning of this century: a massive show of brute force, followed by the disarming and disbanding of the local military, the establishment of new security forces armed and trained by the United States, and the creation of a new state structure run by pro-U.S...
...Bosch, who was ousted in a U.S-sponsored coup in 1963, proposed that such impe- rialism was a phenomenon of the past, superceded by what he called "Pentagonism...
...Certainly there were strategic considerations: The Pentagon may be willing to hand the Canal over to the Panamanian government in the year 2000, as stipulated in the Torrijos-Carter treaties, but only to one which exhibits unequivocal fealty...
...In this brave new world, Hemispheric affairs and municipal politics come off as a grade-B morality play in which, just like in Hollywood, black and Latin people play devils and extras-and end up dead...
...meddling the perceived threat of a rival empire...
...Wars, he argued, were no longer fought to conquer resources or defeat rivals, rather to justify the high military budgets that keep the U.S...
...invasions of Central America and the Caribbean since the 1 850s (17 of them in Panama), the objective was to muscle out the British and establish the United States' sovereign claim to the Caribbean Basin creating client states to ensure U.S...
Vol. 23 • February 1990 • No. 5
